They feel the punishment is unfair considering SNP minsters have repeatedly misled parliament without penalty. Mr McMahon is also not considered a “serial offender”, one of the MSPs who repeatedly make outbursts in the chamber.

The pressure on the presiding officer increased when Liz Smith, a Tory MSP, wrote a letter to her asking whether it was acceptable for the First Minister to ask for the official report to be changed without informing MSPs.

In a statement to Holyrood this morning Ms Marwick set out her reasons for suspending the Uddingston and Bellshill MSP.

“However, as I did not clearly hear what the Member said at the time, I decided to speak to him privately and to take time to study the Official Report of proceedings once it was available.

“I acknowledged that Mr McMahon apologised. Had Mr McMahon not done so, I would have referred the matter to the Parliamentary Bureau, so serious did I consider his discourtesy to the chair.”

The punishment has been handed out only once before when George Reid suspended Carolyn Leckie, a former Scottish Socialist Party MSP, in 2004 for ruling her behaviour had been disorderly.

The row broke out after it emerged the First Minister told MSPs last month around 18,000 people were employed on wind and wave farms when the industry claims the figure is only around 11,000.

Instead of publicly admitting the error, he wrote to Holyrood’s administrators asking that they change his answer by altering the official report, a written minute of parliament’s proceedings.

However, he did not simultaneously follow Scottish Parliament guidance that he publicise the correction by telling the MSP whose question prompted his inaccurate answer, the presiding officer and the opposition parties.

MSPs only discovered that the jobs total was incorrect and Mr Salmond’s subsequent attempt to alter Holyrood’s records after the error was highlighted by an anti-wind farm campaigner.

Ms Smith raised a point of order in the parliament yesterday highlighting the discrepancy and asked whether the First Minister was allowed to amend the official report without “acknowledging to parliament itself that an error has been made”.

Ms Marwick said the change to Holyrood’s records was finally implemented yesterday afternoon and confirmed parliamentary guidance “includes steps that a member should take to publicise the correction when that has been made”.

However, she did not chastise Mr Salmond for not following this guidance when he made the original request for the official report to be changed.

After she shouted “Order!” to quiet a hubbub on Holyrood’s benches, Mr McMahon shouted: “You’re out of order”.

She asked him to withdraw the remark, prompting him to respond: “I apologise”. She thanked him but later asked him to a meeting in her office. Sources claimed she thought his apology too quick and insincere, prompting her to suspend him about two hours after the talks.

Meanwhile, Ms Smith wrote to Ms Marwick questioning whether it was right for Mr Salmond to escape punishment for him not informing MSPs straightaway.

“Clearly, if this is accepted practice then it effectively means that any Member may correct the Official Record as they see fit without the openness and transparency which, I believe, are two of the founding principles of the Parliament itself,” she wrote.

“As such, it raises questions about the integrity of the Parliament and the ability of Members to effectively scrutinise what is said in the chamber and in committee rooms.”